LONDON - Mr Richard Beeston, the much respected foreign editor of The Times, has died at the age of 50 after a long battle with cancer.

Mr Beeston, who spent 30 years reporting from the world's frontlines, died early on Sunday morning at his home in west London, said the newspaper.

Better known as just "Rick", Mr Beeston started out as a foreign correspondent at 21 covering South Africa and the Lebanese civil war, according to Guardian.

He later went to Jerusalem and Moscow, where he reported on the conflict in Chechnya, as well as to post-Saddam Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.